The fatal ring
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A tribute to the bard with a play in Marathi.
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VERBAL ACTION A scene from the play.
April 23 is observed as the World Book Day. This was the day on which playwright-poet William Shakespeare was born and also the day he died.
Known for his plays and poems, many in the theatre world also observe the day by remembering the legend and staging a play.
Marathi Granth Sangralaya, in association with the Rangdhara presented a one-act play The Ring Again in Marathi. The play written by Yogesh Soman was directed by theatre personality Bhasker
Shewalker.
The play revolves around two characters talking on phone with each other. The play was well adapted to the stage by the director, as there was hardly any movement for the artistes on the stage. The minimal use of props and the use of vachika abhinay (verbal action) for the play by the director needs to be appreciated.
The play's storyline has a professor who is doing a thesis on Fear of Death. He randomly picks up the telephone and calls a shopkeeper and extends friendship and tells about his project and how he can induce the fear of death in people and make them die. The professor adds at the end of the call that the shopkeeper would die within four hours.
Though the shopkeeper thinks it is a prank, he gets worried as time ticks by the professor hangs up. The shopkeeper feels that the professor is planning to kill him and when the next call comes from the professor, he gets jittery and requests the professor to leave him alone. The professor mentions that he is only on the phone and how he can kill him. But he warns the shopkeeper that his time is ticking away and he would die in few hours.
After a few calls like this, the shopkeeper's fear of death mounts and he gets hypertensive and dies of a stroke.
Upon not getting a response on the phone, the professor initially feels elated on his achievement of proving his thesis of leading persons to death by fear.
But it also induces in him a sense of guilt and he ends his life.
Both the characters Dilip Salgarkar as the shopkeeper and Mayanand Thakur as the professor did a good job in essaying their roles.
C. SURESH KUMAR
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